Steiner High School Education
Below Rudolf Steiner outlines the connection between Education and Healing during a lecture in Autumn, 1923. 'Why do we educate—remains to a large
degree external today because as grown-ups we do not find such great value
in what we ourselves have become through ourown education. We do not
look back with deep gratitude on what we received through instruction and
education. Ask your own heart whether this gratitude is always alive.
Surely single instances will be found, it is true, but on the whole we do not
think with deep gratitude about our own education, about our own
instruction, because we do not fully grasp the importance of what education
truly is, what instruction truly means, what forces of man's nature must
truly be made active. For this reason it is so difficult today to arouse
pedagogical enthusiasm in people. Basically, all our methods in education,
even the most ingenious and thoroughly elaborated methods, have for this
reason only a limited value. For the answers to the questions: 'How do we
do this? — How do we do that? —have only a limited value. What is of the
greatest value, however, is that we have enthusiasm in our activity, and can
also fully develop this enthusiasm in our work, if we wish to be true
teachers. This enthusiasm has a contagious power and it is this alone that
works wonders in teaching. The child follows willingly this enthusiasm,
and if he does not follow the teacher, it is usually an indication that this
enthusiasm is lacking.
"Often in classes, or the whole work of a school, one sees a certain
heaviness, and this heaviness must be overcome. Such heaviness can also
express itself in an artificial enthusiasm. Yet this can never accomplish
what is needed, but only that kind of enthusiasm which is kindled out of the
way in which we ourselves enter into the material we are dealing with in
the classes. And here it is necessary that we work toward the development
of a special kind of consciousness. .'. . This we can do only if, deeply in our
own hearts and not merely in external phrases, we come directly to a true
experience of spiritual values in the field of pedagogy. . . . Yet again we
shall only be capable of this if we have a clear understanding of what has
been lost in the education of the present time, has been lost for the past
three or four hundred years, and must be found again.
"What has been lost is the knowledge that in reality man, when he
comes into the world, is essentially a being who needs to be healed. It is
this connection between education and healing which has been lost. . . It may sound unreasonable to say that from the point of view of the higher
nature of man there is something of the nature of illness in the fact that we
have continually to battle with the forces of the body until death. But
without such a radical conception, we cannot find our way through to the
reality of what education means. In education there must be an element of
healing."
And again from a North American educator, David Mitchell, other related thoughts are claearly expressed. http://www.whywaldorfworks.org/02_W_Education/high_school.asp In the high school, from grade nine through grade twelve, a new image of the adult stands in the young person's mind as an ideal. Truthfulness, thoughtfulness, self-possession, consideration, strong-mindedness, warm-heartedness-these are the qualities the adolescent holds as ideals. From around age fourteen, the student looks for such qualities in his teachers. No longer blindly accepting authority, he looks to a mentor who inspires him and who is clearly worthy of emulation.
The high school student also needs teachers who have devoted themselves to and mastered particular subjects or skills-the logic in mathematics, the control of the hand and sharpening of eye in metal-work and wood-carving or the development of bodily grace, control and expression in eurythmy and gymnastics.
Students will gravitate towards particular people and areas of study according to their individual preferences and talents. At the same time each student should continue to accept the discipline each subject demands and also appreciate the insights and broader perspective that an interdisciplinary approach makes possible.
This article originally appeared in the AWSNA publication, Windows into Waldorf: An Introduction to Waldorf Education. David Mitchell
Below Rudolf Steiner outlines the connection between Education and Healing during a lecture in Autumn, 1923.
'Why do we educate—remains to a large
degree external today because as grown-ups we do not find such great value
in what we ourselves have become through ourown education. We do not
look back with deep gratitude on what we received through instruction and
education. Ask your own heart whether this gratitude is always alive.
Surely single instances will be found, it is true, but on the whole we do not
think with deep gratitude about our own education, about our own
instruction, because we do not fully grasp the importance of what education
truly is, what instruction truly means, what forces of man's nature must
truly be made active. For this reason it is so difficult today to arouse
pedagogical enthusiasm in people. Basically, all our methods in education,
even the most ingenious and thoroughly elaborated methods, have for this
reason only a limited value. For the answers to the questions: 'How do we
do this? — How do we do that? —have only a limited value. What is of the
greatest value, however, is that we have enthusiasm in our activity, and can
also fully develop this enthusiasm in our work, if we wish to be true
teachers. This enthusiasm has a contagious power and it is this alone that
works wonders in teaching. The child follows willingly this enthusiasm,
and if he does not follow the teacher, it is usually an indication that this
enthusiasm is lacking.
"Often in classes, or the whole work of a school, one sees a certain
heaviness, and this heaviness must be overcome. Such heaviness can also
express itself in an artificial enthusiasm. Yet this can never accomplish
what is needed, but only that kind of enthusiasm which is kindled out of the
way in which we ourselves enter into the material we are dealing with in
the classes. And here it is necessary that we work toward the development
of a special kind of consciousness. .'. . This we can do only if, deeply in our
own hearts and not merely in external phrases, we come directly to a true
experience of spiritual values in the field of pedagogy. . . . Yet again we
shall only be capable of this if we have a clear understanding of what has
been lost in the education of the present time, has been lost for the past
three or four hundred years, and must be found again.
"What has been lost is the knowledge that in reality man, when he
comes into the world, is essentially a being who needs to be healed. It is
this connection between education and healing which has been lost. . .
It may sound unreasonable to say that from the point of view of the higher
nature of man there is something of the nature of illness in the fact that we
have continually to battle with the forces of the body until death. But
without such a radical conception, we cannot find our way through to the
reality of what education means. In education there must be an element of
healing."
And again from a North American educator, David Mitchell, other related thoughts are claearly expressed.
http://www.whywaldorfworks.org/02_W_Education/high_school.asp
In the high school, from grade nine through grade twelve, a new image of the adult stands in the young person's mind as an ideal. Truthfulness, thoughtfulness, self-possession, consideration, strong-mindedness, warm-heartedness-these are the qualities the adolescent holds as ideals. From around age fourteen, the student looks for such qualities in his teachers. No longer blindly accepting authority, he looks to a mentor who inspires him and who is clearly worthy of emulation.
The high school student also needs teachers who have devoted themselves to and mastered particular subjects or skills-the logic in mathematics, the control of the hand and sharpening of eye in metal-work and wood-carving or the development of bodily grace, control and expression in eurythmy and gymnastics.
Students will gravitate towards particular people and areas of study according to their individual preferences and talents. At the same time each student should continue to accept the discipline each subject demands and also appreciate the insights and broader perspective that an interdisciplinary approach makes possible.
This article originally appeared in the AWSNA publication, Windows into Waldorf: An Introduction to Waldorf Education. David Mitchell